Trials are Inevitable
1 Thessalonians 3:2-5
15th October 2021
1 Thessalonians 3v2-5
We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow-worker in spreading the
gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,
so that no-one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we
were destined for them.
In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted.
And it turned out that way, as you well know.
For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your
faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our
labours might have been in vain.
You may remember from our previous studies of this letter that Paul, Silas and Timothy were in prison for the crime of telling people about the love of Jesus Christ. They'd longed to return to Thessalonica to visit the church there, that they'd planted about two years before but had been repeatedly prevented from going. Eventually, Paul and Silas sent Timothy, while they remained behind in Athens.
Verse 2 shows how highly Paul and Silas valued Timothy, describing him as "our brother and God's fellow-worker in spreading the gospel of Christ". They were willing to part with this valuable team member, they say, "to strengthen and encourage you in your faith so that no-one would be unsettled by these trials".
They then say "You know quite well that we were destined for them". The churches knew that Paul and his team would be persecuted. They'd already been persecuted in Philippi and Thessalonica. They would meet the same sorts of opposition for as long as they were preaching the Gospel. Those of us who preach on the streets of Britain are persecuted now. We who don't just believe but actively stand up for God, for righteousness and for truth, will always be persecuted.
We all go through trials of various kinds. Not just persecution but illness, bereavement, job losses, relationship breakdowns, and so on. It's always painful to go through a trial. That why they call it a trial. But it's much less painful if we understand and believe that we were destined for whatever trial we're experiencing.
This takes faith. I firmly believe that God has chosen everything that happens in my life, including the things that I find pleasant and encouraging and also the things I find painful, bewildering and heartbreaking.
I believe this because I believe God is in control. I can't imagine God making a mistake. I can't imagine God not knowing what's going to happen tomorrow. And I'm certain that God loves me enough to make sure nothing bad happens to me without a very good reason. He is infinitely loving and infinitely powerful, and yet some of our trials seem almost more than we can bear.
But we were destined for these trials. God has a purpose in each of them. And just because we don't know what that purpose is, doesn't mean there isn't a purpose.
I'm aware that if God were to choose that I suffer a profoundly painful trial, I may doubt His love or His power. But that would show my weakness, not His. So far, I've been able to believe that His will is being done, because He's God. And believing that God has a good purpose in my suffering really helps me to live though it.
Paul writes:
1 Thessalonians 3v4
In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be
persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know.
Paul, Silas and Timothy weren't surprised by their persecution. They were expecting it. They didn't see persecution or any other suffering as something going wrong, but as part of God's plan. And so they weren't shocked when it happened.
According to the NIV, verse 5 says:
1 Thessalonians 3v5
For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out
about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted
you and that our labours might have been in vain.
The word "afraid" is not in the Bible. The NIV translators seem to have added it in an attempt to make Paul's meaning more clear, but I don't think they succeeded. I'm sure Paul was concerned for the wellbeing of church in Thessalonica, but I'm not sure he was afraid. Anyway, Paul sent Timothy to check that the church in Thessalonica had not succumbed to temptation.
The tempter – Satan – would have spoken to the hearts and fears of the Thessalonians, tempting them to give up following Jesus in order to avoid persecution.
They were already experiencing persecution themselves, and now they were hearing that Paul and his friends were being persecuted again. Satan was on a whispering campaign: "Even the great Christian leaders are being persecuted. God doesn't even protect them. What chance have you got?" "It's not going to stop, you know. I'll only get worse". "You may be tortured, imprisoned and killed for believing in Jesus". "Are these religious ideas really worth dying for?" "If God really loved you, wouldn't He make your life easier than this?" And so on.
Sooner or later, every Christian is tempted to give up. There are all sorts of reasons the tempter can give you to give up: the lust for money, power or sex; laziness; doubts about the trustworthiness of the Bible; doubts about whether God has forgiven your sins; doubts about whether God would want somebody like you; perhaps you find church boring or unfriendly; perhaps you see the sin that still has a foothold in other Christians, and it disgusts you; perhaps you see the sin that still has a foothold in your own heart, and you wonder if you'll ever be free.
Being a lazy, uncommitted, unproductive Christian can be a reasonably easy pleasant life, if rather a dull one. But those of us who really follow Jesus, believe the Bible and put it into practice, those who stand up for Jesus regardless of the cost, will find there truly is a cost.
Jesus said:
Matthew 10:34-36
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not
come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her
mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law' –
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household."
And He wasn't joking. Christians from a Muslim or Hindu background are often rejected by their families. Christians in communist countries are often betrayed to the authorities by their families. Christians here in England are often rejected by their friends or taunted by their workmates. Some marriages fail because of irreconcilable differences in the world-views of the husband and the wife.
Being a real Christian, a serious Christian, is costly. Let's not kid ourselves. It can cost you your family, your friends, your job, your liberty and even your life. But it's the only life worth living.
A real, serious Christian gets to know God. He gets to work for God and with God. A real, serious Christian knows profound peace and unutterable joy. A real, serious Christian has total assurance of a wonderful life after death. A real, serious Christian learns what nobody else can learn. Jeremiah 33:3 says "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
God doesn't share all knowledge with us, but He does show those who truly follow Him things we'd never dreampt of. That's part of the joy of faithful, persistent Bible study; you find out things that you never thought were there, things that you couldn't imagine, things that change your life. But to find these things, you have to be a person who wants God's will, not your own, a person who puts God first, a person who doesn't think of God as a useful and pleasant addition to his life, but as the Lord of his life.
And to prove that we're serious Christians, we have to come though various trials. And those trials are part of the process of making us serious and mature Christians.